Truth
by Lazlo Pizazzlo
Summary: Shadow longs to prove who - and what - exactly he is. Once he finds a way to do so, what path will he choose? AU oneshot.


_Silly little oneshot. Enjoy! _

* * *

Sonic was unstoppable.

In one fell swoop, he brought three black aliens to their knees, and after bouncing off a tree, he was at it again. A small army of Black Arms soldiers had infiltrated the area and killed every G.U.N. soldier on site. Luckily, a pair of hedgehogs had been close behind the now-deceased soldiers, and one had pounced on the opportunity to avenge those who fell.

The blue blur let out an excited whoop, slamming into the remaining aliens with his Homing Attack. If they weren't killed, they were certainly unconscious, Sonic figured, and he was happy either way. The other hedgehog, Shadow, stood quietly from a distance for his own reasons. Sonic decided not to question it; instead, he returned to Shadow's side as he dusted his hands off.

"Okay! That should do it!" Sonic sighed. He wiped the sweat from his brow, casting a smug look to the foreboding red sky. "We're winning all over the place, Shadow. This is pretty sweet."

Shadow said nothing, keeping his feelings on the matter to himself. Whether he pitied or despised the Black Arms was still up for debate in his mind; something deep inside told him that he owed that Black Doom character something after he mentioned the "promise" made on Shadow's behalf. To see all his minions fall was almost saddening. He needed a clear head at this time, and to involve himself in bringing the Black Arms down would no doubt cloud his mind. He didn't want the confusion any longer.

He only found himself alongside Sonic by chance. Where else would he go? Dr. Robotnik dropped hints before the invasion pertaining to Shadow's origins. Was he flesh and blood or just another one of his robots? The thought actually frightened him. He wanted nothing to do with Robotnik for the moment because of that.

"You ready to keep moving? I hear G.U.N. needs backup all the way back in Westopolis," Sonic said. "Whaddya say you and I have a race for the heck of it? Y'know, just to lighten the—"

"I want to see Eggman."

Sonic froze. He blinked. "Eggman? Why, what's up with him?"

"Sonic, I hope I don't need to remind you that I want to know about who I am," Shadow explained. "The doctor's kept mentioning things...things that make me wonder if I'm..."

The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes. "A robot?"

Shadow cast his eyes to the side, almost as if in shame. Sonic frowned, frustrated at the idea of Shadow being so concerned with the mad scientist's banter. Sonic bit his lip and began to walk in the direction from which they came, and Shadow hopelessly followed.

"Shads, have you ever considered that Eggman might be, in a surprising twist, lying to you?" Sonic asked. Shadow didn't seem fazed by the question. The blue hedgehog shifted, stretching his legs. "He does that a lot. I know it's a difficult time right now, and you're confused and all that, but don't lose your head too much."

"There's just no way of really knowing."

The pair of hedgehogs fell silent after that comment. Indeed, at a passing glance, there seemed like no possibility of deciphering whether Eggman spoke the truth about Shadow's past. Even he, Sonic the Hedgehog, couldn't confirm that it was really Shadow. After the ARK incident, Sonic admittedly assumed Shadow to be dead. There was no way that anyone could survive that kind of fall...

He cast his emerald eyes to the black hedgehog for a moment. If Shadow was an android, Eggman sure had an eye for detail. Sure, he didn't get to see Shadow up-close all that much in his previous encounters with him, but he knew a hedgehog when he saw one. Those quills, those ears, those eyes...there was no way he could be just metal and wires.

Suddenly, Sonic stopped, coming to a realization. Shadow came to a halt after finding the blue blur lacking from his side.

"What?"

"I got an idea. It's gonna sound crazy, and I don't normally condone any of this stuff, but..." Sonic trailed off. "It could prove what you are."

Shadow's ears twitched. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, robots don't really...bleed. And I'd know—I've broken a lot of 'em in my day! They just have wires and sparks and..." Sonic cleared his throat as Shadow furrowed his brow in thought. They fell into silence once again. Shadow was clearly thinking it through carefully.

"I have to find out what's inside me," the black hedgehog muttered, nodding. Sonic shivered, realizing what that would entail, but there was no other way to know, or prove, what Shadow truly was. He kept his distance as Shadow turned to a crumpled human soldier on the ground, long since dead. He crouched down to the corpse, unsheathing a knife that had been fastened to the soldier's belt, and stood.

Sonic stumbled on his words. "H-hey, just be real careful! Don't hurt yourself too badly..."

Having ignored Sonic's warning, Shadow gripped the blade and slid it along his palm. He tossed the knife away and watched his gloved hand carefully. Sonic tiptoed up behind Shadow, now too curious for his own good. He believed Shadow was a hedgehog all along, but there was still a chance he was wrong.

However, as the seconds went by, red liquid began to emerge, lining the once-invisible cut with fresh blood. Yes, it was blood; and the sting that Shadow felt soon afterward confirmed that. Sonic gasped, but Shadow seemed unmoved.

"Ha! Eggman lied! What'd I tell you? He's a liar!"

As Sonic celebrated, Shadow continued to stare at his hand. His limbs grew heavy. More of the blood flowed from his self-inflicted cut, and his heart began to race.

"Let's go take a quick break from this alien hunt and bop him one. Whaddya say?"

Sonic's words were not reaching Shadow in the least bit. All the black hedgehog saw and heard were gunshots—ones that killed those mysterious black aliens—and their dark, dark blood flying through the air and pooling on the pavement.

"Shadow?"

That blood—their blood—was this. He knew it. That color was so strange; it was dark, almost black, yet had a strange violet sheen. It was the same as what leaked out of him now. Shadow felt sick. What did this mean?

"Shadow, hey, dude, are you alright? Don't tell me you're squeamish around blood!" Sonic said, half-jokingly. Sometimes he really resented Shadow's callous and unfeeling nature...

"Sonic, this is bad," Shadow finally murmured. The blue hedgehog's eyes were suddenly filled with concern. "I think...I need to talk to Black Doom."

* * *

In a flash of warm white light, Sonic and Shadow appeared within the inner sanctums of the Black Comet. Both of the hedgehogs took a few moments to absorb their surroundings, as they had never been within the walls of the extraterrestrial vessel. Although the deep purples and fuchsias suggested a certain coldness to the air, it was pleasantly warm. The ground beneath them was colored a pale dusty rose, and the texture was similar to that of their familiar earth they so often treaded.

What haunted them both was the sense of life within the seemingly-pulsating walls. Though it appeared that there was no life form nearby, the pair, especially Shadow, felt liveliness and energy overflowing throughout the comet. Yet at the same time, there was silence and stillness; indeed, there was no one around.

None that they could see, of course.

"This place is crazy freaky," Sonic muttered, assuming a loose battle stance, as if expecting an ambush. Shadow said nothing in reply as he looked over his shoulder to further analyze the environment. He didn't understand; anywhere he went, Black Doom seemed to follow. Why was it that when he finally needed him, he was nowhere to be found?

"Let's just start looking," Shadow sighed. He held his wounded hand, now beginning to clot, and started forward.

"**You won't need to look far**."

The sudden ominous, deep voice sent a shiver down both the hedgehogs' spines. Sonic whirled around to see Earth's three-eyed nightmare, Black Doom, there behind the pair. He almost charged at the alien commander out of fiery vengeful spirits, yet he restrained himself. It could wait—Shadow needed him for now. The ebony hedgehog came to a halt, ears twitching as he clutched his hand even tighter.

"Black Doom," Shadow growled. He didn't bother to look at the monster in question.

"Shadow, it is a great honor to be graced with your presence," Black Doom said, "but you seem to be troubled...and injured. That blood of yours is precious, you know—"

Shadow's rage suddenly flared. He whirled around, outstretching his palm angrily. "'My' blood?! Or your soldiers'?!"

His outburst echoed throughout the massive corridor the three were in. Sonic, thrown off by how long the echo lasted, shifted his eyes up at the dark, high ceiling with great suspicion. It was extremely unnerving for him to be so small in a place so vast; the Black Comet made Eggman's ships look like cheap plastic toys.

Black Doom, on the other hand, appeared to be unmoved. He seemed to be waiting for Shadow to continue or calm down—whichever came first.

"What the hell am I?!" Shadow shouted. He no longer felt safe in his own skin; the blood flowing through his veins felt like a swarm of crawling insects. He wanted to get rid of everything inside of him. Shadow hugged his chest loosely, feeling an eerie chill envelope his body. "Where did I come from...?"

"Don't irrationalize this, Shadow," Black Doom replied simply. "Nothing has changed."

"Of course something has changed!" Shadow cried. "This changes everything!"

"No, it does not," the alien argued. "What you have merely stumbled upon was a piece of your history—the history you have been looking for all this time. Yes. The very blood inside of you is inside of me as well. It is inside your brothers; it is the life force that keeps us powerful and eternal."

The black hedgehog's lungs were constricted with horror. His mouth was open, attempting to speak, yet his voice could not bring itself forward. Shadow merely stood there, frozen in shock and limp with fear as Sonic turned to Black Doom in alarm.

"You can't be serious right now..."

"I am. Shadow is my son, transfused with my DNA fifty years ago in order to create the Ultimate Life Form," Black Doom said, gaze fixed upon Shadow. "Gerald promised me the Chaos Emeralds in return for my assistance."

God, Shadow thought. The professor, Shadow's dearest family, knew about this entire ordeal and never once mentioned it. Memories were beginning to return now, and Shadow began to remember spending late nights in Gerald's personal lab. They talked about Earth, about life, and about humanity. Shadow had been so fascinated with people and how they thought and functioned. Earth was but just a dream; a wonder that Shadow often thought about as he stargazed. But never once had Gerald took him aside and explained what would happen in the future—what was happening now.

Did Maria know, too?

The black blur returned to reality. Things needed to be settled.

"So you knew about this all along...and didn't tell me, even though I was...lost?" Shadow asked, voice trembling lightly as the pieces began to fall into place. There was a great, heavy pause.

"Yes. I knew."

Shadow was shattered. His eyes fell to the ground, half-lidded and blank. His senses went numb; his vision was clouded—not by tears, but by a shroud of shame. He should have seen something like this coming. How could he have been so ignorant?

Seeing his reaction, Sonic growled and clenched his fists. "So you lied! You've been lying this whole time!"

Black Doom narrowed all three of his eyes at the blue blur. "Naïve hedgehog, I did nothing of the sort. Lying would entail falsifying information; I never presented information in the first place."

"But you were keeping a huge secret! That's a lie," Sonic argued. "You didn't even bother to think about telling him, did you?!"

"Enough, you little pest!" Black Doom shouted. Sonic's mouth closed, but his enraged eyes remained unwavering. "You have no part in this. It involves only Shadow and I..." One of Black Doom's fists gathered fuchsia energy, and he drew his arm back, preparing to smite Sonic directly in the skull. "...so be gone with you!"

"Black Doom," Shadow muttered. His small voice was enough to stop both Sonic and Black Doom instantaneously. "Were you ever planning to tell me?"

The alien relaxed, pushing the thought of tearing the blue hedgehog limb from limb aside. He approached Shadow gently. "Yes; as soon as there was a single moment of peace and solitude between us, I would have proceeded to explain the situation."

_I regret that I had not told you everything earlier. _

Shadow gasped as he heard those words within the confines of his head. They were so gentle, as if they were the Professor's...and they voided his mind of all previous shames and remorse.

_It was my mistake. You are my child...my dear, dear child..._

His ruby eyes widened. Shadow gazed at Black Doom, the one he now realized, was speaking to him through his mind. Those words touched him; he was finally wanted—finally a part of something.

"I doubt it, you freak. Shadow, c'mon, let's show him who's boss!"

Suddenly, in a streak of black, Sonic's stomach erupted in pain, lungs completely hollowed of any air. He gasped, eyes widening, and fell to the ground. There were many words that longed to escape Sonic's throat, yet nothing came out. All he could do was watch Shadow loom over him with darkened eyes.

"Yes, Sonic. Let's."

Shadow latched onto the famed hero's arm and flung him over onto his stomach. Sonic had no time to react; Shadow was far too fast. Dust clouded around the blue hedgehog's body, tears stinging his eyes. Never before had he felt such intense pain. Was it because all this damage was caused by his friend?

He was sloppily flipped back over onto his back. Before he could even think of escaping, the blue hedgehog's chest was crushed with the weight of Shadow's foot. With all his might, Sonic rasped, "Shadow, why?"

"What this blood proves to me is who I am, Sonic," Shadow explained. "I am a part of this race; I am meant to be with and serve the Black Arms. And they clearly want you out of the picture."

If Black Doom had a mouth, he would have been grinning madly. Instead, he moved to his son's place and set a hand on the black hedgehog's shoulder proudly. Sonic, on the brink of unconsciousness, stared desperately up at the dark hedgehog, weakly reaching up to him.

"I won't kill you. It's not my place," Shadow said. Sonic's hand fell to the ground, and his world grew dark.

"But I cannot guarantee that you'll ever wake up."


End file.
